Food services and drinking places, March 2016
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Released: 2016-05-31
$5.1 billion
March 2016
-0.1% 
(monthly change)
Sales in the food services and drinking places subsector edged down 0.1% for the second straight month, reaching $5.1 billion in March. Prices for food purchased from restaurants were up 2.6% year over year in March, following a 2.7% increase the previous month.
Chart 1
Food services and drinking places sales edge down in March
Full-service restaurant industry sales decrease
Lower sales in the full-service restaurant industry (-1.2%) offset gains in the rest of the subsector in March. Full-service restaurant sales were down for the third month in a row.
The special food services industry group, which includes food service contractors, caterers and mobile food services, posted a 2.7% sales increase, following six consecutive monthly declines.
Limited-service restaurants recorded their ninth consecutive monthly sales increase, rising 0.4%.
Sales were up in the drinking places industry (+0.3%), the fourth increase in five months.
Sales down in five provinces
Ontario (-0.5%) reported the largest decrease in dollar terms in March.
Sales were down in Quebec (-0.5%) for the second straight month.
Receipts in Prince Edward Island (-0.4%) and New Brunswick (-0.2%) were down in March.
British Columbia (+0.7%) and Newfoundland and Labrador (+1.9%) posted gains in March, after both recorded decreases in February.
Note to readers
All data in this release are seasonally adjusted and expressed in current dollars. For information on seasonal adjustment, see Seasonally adjusted data – Frequently asked questions.
For information on trend-cycle data, see the StatCan Blog and Trend-cycle estimates – Frequently asked questions.
Contact information
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